The concerto for solo violin and orchestra is one of the most popular genres for violinists in the twentieth century violin repertoire. Originating in the Baroque period, the concerto developed in form, harmony, style and technique through the Classical and Romantic periods. The most well-known violin concerti written in the twentieth century are composed by Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Bartók, Stravinsky, Khachaturian and Berg. In addition to these famous works, there are lesser-known twentieth-century concerti for solo violin and orchestra by Darius Milhaud, Hans Werner Henze and Arthur Bliss, among others. Milhaud and Henze, both prolific composers overall, each composed three violin concerti. Bliss wrote only one. Among their works, Milhaud's Second Violin Concerto, Henze's First Violin Concerto and Bliss's Violin Concerto present formidable technical challenges to the violinist and are compared in this treatise in terms of the respective challenges each work presents. This treatise covers the composers' biographies, overviews of their violin concerti, and practice guides with technical suggestions and exercises intended to help the violin student execute each concerto. The main part of each chapter is the practice guide which addresses the main technical issues in each concerto. Recommendations are presented for various targeted practice materials, such as études, scales and pedagogical books by Auer, Galamian, Flesch, Courvoisier, Ševčík, Dont, Fiorillo, Fischer, Kreutzer and Rode. The treatise also compares some issues in the violin concerti by Saint-Saëns and Wieniawski, two examples from the standard violin repertoire with the techniques required in the three concerti discussed in this paper.
